William Shenstone Quotes

Second thoughts are oftentimes the very worst of all thoughts.

Let the gull'd fool the toil of war pursue,
Where bleed the many to enrich the few.

Oft has good-nature been the fool's defence,
And honest meaning gilded want of sense.

Theirs is the present who can praise the past.

There seem near as many people that want passion as want reason.

I trimm'd my lamp, consumed the midnight oil.

A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money.

Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention.

Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle size are alone entangled in.

Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice: whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born.

Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent.

The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite.

So sweetly she bade me adieu,
I thought that she bade me return.

For seldom shall she hear a tale
So sad, so tender, yet so true.

Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow,
Emblem right meet of decency does yield.